Tuesday, 8 October 2013

All researchers need to learn to communicate details of their
projects to a wider audience. Obviously,
different audiences require different approaches but to try to give some
perspective, here are a few hints and tips gleaned from the experiences I’ve
had with my own project thus far.

Firstly, and perhaps most importantly: know your audience. This is not so much about the tone (although over-familiarity is a really bad idea in a formal setting!), but rather about the
content of your talk. When presenting to your own group, there is perhaps a
level of common knowledge that means that you can assume the basics and only
give abbreviated reports on progress. However, in any other context, it is best to
assume that the audience has little knowledge of the specifics of
your work. To that end, a brief introduction is useful to set the scene before
getting into the details.

Secondly, pacing and timing are key. A talk divided into clear sections holds the
interest of an audience better than a long talk without breaks. It also makes
it easier to rehearse timings and to be flexible. Both are useful in preparing to talk in a
formal setting such as a conference. In such
a setting, the Chair will offer some sort of signal near to the end of your
slot, or a clock will be made available.
In either case, rehearsing timings beforehand is useful. Do bear in mind though, that people tend to
talk more quickly when nervous.

On the subject of nerves, remember that the audience is there
to hear what you have to say. Everyone in the room is on your side so if there
are any minor slip-ups, focus on your work and just keep going. No-one will object if you need to take a
moment to gather your thoughts mid-talk.

Lastly, don’t dread question sessions – they are usually a
great opportunity to engage with the audience and possibly to establish some
beneficial networking connections. From personal experience, these sessions
have led to many worthwhile discussions after the fact, and to one worthwhile
collaboration.

If anyone has any other experiences or additional suggestions
for presentation, please feel free to
contribute in the comments.

Monday, 7 October 2013

Following last month's discussion, James Wallace made the useful observation that, since the bulk of people attending the researchers' group are PhD students, it would be helpful to have occasional talks on some of the basic skills needed for any researcher. Two subjects he suggested were presenting and posters.

Not only was James forthcoming with his suggestions, he was also prepared to back them up by volunteering his services. He kindly offered to lead this month's discussion on presenting. He provided a useful blog entry in advance of the session which I took the liberty of editing a little. James' original entry asserted that it is important for young researchers to develop the ability to communicate details of their projects. I edited it to read "All researchers need to learn to communicate details of their projects to a wider audience."